Family and Home Life
In his later years, Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. resided in Arlington County, Virginia. He and his wife, the former Mouza Coutelais-du-Roche of Harbin, Manchuria, China, had four children: Elmo R. Zumwalt III (died of cancer in 1988, possibly due to Agent Orange exposure), James Gregory Zumwalt; Ann F. Zumwalt Coppola and Mouzetta C. Zumwalt-Weathers.
During his son's illness in the early 1980s, Admiral Zumwalt was very active in lobbying Congress to establish a national registry of bone marrow donors. Such donors serve patients who do not have suitably matched bone marrow donors in their families. This was ultimately a disinterested act, since his son was able to receive a transplant from his own sister, but many patients don't have close relatives who are able and willing to help in this heroic way. His efforts were a major factor in the founding of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) in July 1986. Admiral Zumwalt was the first chairman of the NMDP's Board of Directors.
Admiral Zumwalt said he felt his son's cancer was most definitely due to Agent Orange. He also mentioned that his grandson Russell suffered from very severe learning disabilities that could possibly be traced to it as well. Admiral Zumwalt, along with his son and writer John Pekkanen, authored a book called My Father, My Son, published by MacMillan in September 1986, where they discussed the family tragedy of his son's battle with cancer. Although at the time of writing My Father, My Son, the results of the treatment were promising, he died in 1988 at age 42. My Father, My Son was adapted for a TV movie in the same name, starring Karl Malden as the elder Zumwalt and Keith Carradine as his son.
Read more about this topic: Elmo Zumwalt
Famous quotes containing the words family and, family, home and/or life:
“O how terrible it must be for a young man—
seated before a family and the family thinking
We never saw him before! He wants our Mary Lou!
After tea and homemade cookies they ask What do you do for a living”
—Gregory Corso (b. 1930)
“What we often take to be family values—the work ethic, honesty, clean living, marital fidelity, and individual responsibility—are in fact social, religious, or cultural values. To be sure, these values are transmitted by parents to their children and are familial in that sense. They do not, however, originate within the family. It is the value of close relationships with other family members, and the importance of these bonds relative to other needs.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“If my sons are to become the kind of men our daughters would be pleased to live among, attention to domestic details is critical. The hostilities that arise over housework...are crushing the daughters of my generation....Change takes time, but men’s continued obliviousness to home responsibilities is causing women everywhere to expire of trivialities.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder, so much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)